His words touched me. I was flattered James worried about betraying me. Even though he didn’t remember I was his mate. I just needed him to make the connection. Needed him to understand she and I were the same person.

“Given the situation you’re in, and knowing the Elders threw you and your father out, why continue playing by their rules?”

“As long as my dad and I live here, we have no choice.”

“There’s got to be a way to use their logic against them. Beat them at their own game.”

“I really wish there were.”

The hope in his voice gave me the courage I needed to share my plan with him. It was the perfect time to explain how The Bound Book could help us. But James’s next words stopped me cold.

“I’ll get my father and me back home another way. I’m not going to use you as bait just so I can have a warm bed,” James said. “Tomorrow, I’m going to have to send you back to your world.”

“What if I don’t want to go?” I challenged.

James chuckled. “We’ve come quite a way in a short time, haven’t we? When I first met you, I was willing to turn you in so my dad and I could move back home. And you wanted to be as far away from me as possible. You wanted to go back to your world and bring Calla with you.”

“And now?” I asked.

“Everything’s upside down,” James said.

“So what sense does it make, sending me out?”

“Because I won’t let the Elders change who I am. Like I told you before, I really am a good guy. The Elders have taken everything else from me. Please let me keep that part. Let me at least try to do what’s right.”

The tone of his voice told me there would be no reasoning with him, no convincing him to go along with my plan. Truthfully, I didn’t even know if what I’d planned to do would work. But I did know one thing. The last time James had tried to do the right thing, it had cost us all we had. He’d left me behind in Woodvine trying to protect me. In the process, he’d broken my heart.

Sometimes doing the right thing wasn’t nearly enough.

10

The Elders

That was the coldest night I’d spent in the woods of Judaculla. The clear sky meant there were no clouds to keep the heat of the day from flying off the Earth. Fatigue tried to claim me after three days spent walking and running through on very little sustenance. I kept myself awake by replaying the days I’d spent with James on the Fringe.